Rheumatoid factor

[Guest guest]

Hi a, welcome to our group. I am also a, so if you have an initial to

use, it will help us know who is who. Rheumatoid factor is an antibody that is

present in the blood of most rheumatoid arthritis patients. An antibody is a

protein made by the immune system that normally helps fight foreign substances

in the body. Not all people with rheumatoid arthritis test positive for

rheumatoid factor, and some that do test positive never develop the disease.

Many rheumatic conditions and other chronic inflammatory diseases also may

produce rheumatoid factors. With increasing age, people with no clinical illness

may have rheumatoid factor. Statistically, patients with rheumatoid arthritis

who have high titer rheumatoid factor are more likely to have severe disease and

systemic involvement than other patients. It is important to note that having

a positive rheumatoid factor will assist in the diagnosis, but the test alone is

not conclusive. High titers usually are diagnostic, but titers of 1:20 to 1:80

are in the gray zone. Your titer is positive, but is not extremely high. Do

you have a diagnosis of RA?

These are several things that can cause a positive rheumatoid factor: Rheumatoid

Arthritis, SLE, Sjogren's Syndrome, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Myositis

Cryoglobulinemia Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Chronic hepatitis -- especially

Hepatitis C, Leprosy, Kala-azar, Normal aging individuals, Idiopathic pulmonary

fibrosis, Cirrhosis, Sarcoidosis, & Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia.

I was on msm for about 6 months, but can't honestly say if it helped or not

since I also radically changed my diet and added other things at the same time.

I stopped taking it and my sed rate is quite high again, so maybe it was working

better than I know.

I hope you enjoy our group.

a